Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 959 - 3.1.1.5. FORMAT CONTROL

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### 3.1.1.5. FORMAT CONTROL

The types ASCII and EBCDIC also take a second (optional) parameter; this is to indicate what kind of vertical format control, if any, is associated with a file. The following data representation types are defined in FTP:

A character file may be transferred to a host for one of three purposes: for printing, for storage and later retrieval, or for processing. If a file is sent for printing, the receiving host must know how the vertical format control is represented. In the second case, it must be possible to store a file at a host and then retrieve it later in exactly the same form. Finally, it should be possible to move a file from one host to another and process the file at the second host without undue trouble. A single ASCII or EBCDIC format does not satisfy all these conditions. Therefore, these types have a second parameter specifying one of the following three formats:

#### 3.1.1.5.1. NON PRINT

This is the default format to be used if the second (format) parameter is omitted. Non-print format must be accepted by all FTP implementations.

The file need contain no vertical format information. If it is passed to a printer process, this process may assume standard values for spacing and margins.

Normally, this format will be used with files destined for processing or just storage.

#### 3.1.1.5.2. TELNET FORMAT CONTROLS

The file contains ASCII/EBCDIC vertical format controls (i.e., <CR>, <LF>, <NL>, <VT>, <FF>) which the printer process will interpret appropriately. <CRLF>, in exactly this sequence, also denotes end-of-line.

#### 3.1.1.5.3. CARRIAGE CONTROL (ASA)

The file contains ASA (FORTRAN) vertical format control characters. (See RFC 740 Appendix C; and Communications of the ACM, Vol. 7, No. 10, p. 606, October 1964.) In a line or a record formatted according to the ASA Standard, the first character is not to be printed. Instead, it should be used to determine the vertical movement of the paper which should take place before the rest of the record is printed.

The ASA Standard specifies the following control characters:

            Character     Vertical Spacing

            blank         Move paper up one line
            0             Move paper up two lines
            1             Move paper to top of next page
            +             No movement, i.e., overprint

Clearly there must be some way for a printer process to distinguish the end of the structural entity. If a file has record structure (see below) this is no problem; records will be explicitly marked during transfer and storage. If the file has no record structure, the <CRLF> end-of-line sequence is used to separate printing lines, but these format effectors are overridden by the ASA controls.

Next: 3.1.2. DATA STRUCTURES

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 959 - 3.1.1.5. FORMAT CONTROL